This document is organized by MAP Reading Goal Areas. Find the goal area in which your student(s) has a low score. Listed below the goal area are content area reading strategies that could help.
The content area reading strategies listed come from the following sources:
National Institute for Literacy. What Content-Area Teachers Should Know About Adolescent Literacy. 2006.
Tovani, Cris. Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? Content Comprehension, Grades 6-12, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers, 2004.
Goal Area 1: Word Recognition and Vocabulary (WA State GLEs 1.2, 1.3). This goal area includes the following skills and concepts:
Understand concepts of print and phonemic awareness
Use text evidence to verify meaning
Use word origins, root words, prefixes, and suffixes
Use context clues and applies content and grade level vocabulary
If a student has a low RIT score in this goal area, these content area strategies could help.
Pre-teach difficult vocabulary using direct, explicit, and systematic instruction. (Explain word meanings and model usage, guide student practice and offer corrective feedback, provide time for independent practice, repeat until students can use vocabulary independently in their reading and writing.)
When selecting vocabulary words, focus on multi-syllabic, high frequency, specialized (e.g. circumference), and non-specialized (e.g. examine) academic words.
Teach syllable types and syllable divisions; base words, prefixes, and suffixes; compound words; function words.
Teach word analysis strategies for decoding multi-syllabic words. This helps adolescent readers decode other unknown words, build a sight-word vocabulary, and learn how to spell words.
Use students’ prior knowledge and provide opportunities for multiple exposures to new words.
Some guidelines—
Determine content-area words with which students may struggle.
When introducing these words, articulate each syllable slowly (e.g. e-co-sys-tem).
Point out patterns in the pronunciation and spelling of prefixes, suffixes, and vowels in selected words (e.g. rac-ism, sex-ism, age-ism).
Point out similarities and differences among words that belong to “word families” (e.g. define, definitely, definition).
Model using new or difficult words in different contexts.
Provide opportunities for students to practice using new or difficult words and reinforce correct pronunciation and usage.
Ask open-ended questions that require students to respond using the new or difficult words (e.g. Do you think racism, sexism, or ageism is more prevalent in our society? Why?).
Goal Area 2: Reading Comprehension (WA State GLE 2.1). This goal area includes the following skills and concepts:
Determine theme, main idea, and supporting details
Make inferences and predictions
Summarize text
Locate information
If a student has a low RIT score in this goal area, these content area strategies could help.
Set a purpose for reading.
Use pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading activities.
Integrate text comprehension strategies into instruction—
Activate prior knowledge.
Make connections between reading material and personal experience (text-to-self), something previously read (text-to-text), something global (text-to-world).
Generate questions before, during, and after reading. Look for answers while reading.
Monitor comprehension. When comprehension breaks down, use “fix up” strategies to repair comprehension.
Summarize text.
Identify text structure and use the pattern of the text to aid in comprehension.
Use graphic and semantic organizers.
Goal Area 3: Knowledge of Text Components (WA State GLEs 2.2, 2.3). This goal area includes the following skills and concepts:
Apply understanding of time order of sequence
Analyze story elements and identify point of view
Analyze text for similarities differences, and categories
Analyze text for cause and effect relationships
Understand literary devices
If a student has a low RIT score in this goal area, the content area strategies listed under goal area 2 could help.
Goal Area 4: Think Critically and Analyze (WA State GLE 2.4). This goal area includes the following skills and concepts:
Analyze text to draw conclusions
Analyze author's purposes and techniques
Analyze text for fact and opinion
Analyze and evaluate validity, accuracy, persuasive devices
Analyze and evaluate author's beliefs and assumptions
If a student has a low RIT score in this goal area, the content area strategies listed under goal area 2 could help.
Goal Area 5: Read Different Materials for a Variety of Purposes (WA State GLEs 3.1, 3.2, 3.4). This goal area include the following skills and concepts:
Analyze functional, informational, and technical documents.
Analyze literature written in a variety of genres
If a student has a low RIT score in this goal area, the content area strategies listed under goal area 2 could help.
Using MAP Results--Reading
This document is organized by MAP Reading Goal Areas. Find the goal area in which your student(s) has a low score. Listed below the goal area are content area reading strategies that could help.
The content area reading strategies listed come from the following sources:
If your student(s) has a need in an area not assessed on the MAP reading test, the following document contains more strategies pulled from the sources listed above.
Reading Strategies for areas not assessed on the MAP Reading Test
Goal Area 1: Word Recognition and Vocabulary (WA State GLEs 1.2, 1.3). This goal area includes the following skills and concepts:
If a student has a low RIT score in this goal area, these content area strategies could help.
Goal Area 2: Reading Comprehension (WA State GLE 2.1). This goal area includes the following skills and concepts:
If a student has a low RIT score in this goal area, these content area strategies could help.
Goal Area 3: Knowledge of Text Components (WA State GLEs 2.2, 2.3). This goal area includes the following skills and concepts:
If a student has a low RIT score in this goal area, the content area strategies listed under goal area 2 could help.
Goal Area 4: Think Critically and Analyze (WA State GLE 2.4). This goal area includes the following skills and concepts:
If a student has a low RIT score in this goal area, the content area strategies listed under goal area 2 could help.
Goal Area 5: Read Different Materials for a Variety of Purposes (WA State GLEs 3.1, 3.2, 3.4). This goal area include the following skills and concepts:
If a student has a low RIT score in this goal area, the content area strategies listed under goal area 2 could help.